Pathless Country

Patrick Bowley's journey from rural Galway to Dublin during the early 20th century is a quest for meaning that is challenged by spiritual crisis and a vocation to preach peace in Ireland. His journey reaches a climax during the 1916 Easter Rising, revealing the true nature of the 'pathless country'.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 284 pages
Publication date: 06 September 2021
Publisher: Cinnamon Press

1900s London was a place of mind-expanding encounters for Patrick Bowley, a young man from rural Galway. He was drawn into the world of mystics, suffragettes, theosophists, and free-thinkers, and he sought meaning in their teachings. However, a failed romance left him disillusioned with London and its class divisions, and he fled to the familiarity of rural Ireland. But even in Ireland, he found no peace, and as Europe slid towards war and Ireland towards rebellion, his longing to shut out the world was challenged by a vocation to preach peace in Ireland that would not be quieted. Patrick embarked on an epic pilgrimage to Dublin, arriving days before the 1916 Easter Rising. This journey would take him on a pathless country, revealing the true nature of the country and its people. Winner of the J G Farrell Award and an Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair Award, James Harpur's debut novel deftly weaves a story of spiritual awakening with fin de siècle alternative thought, love, and political history, exploring how conscience and spiritual quest survive in an atmosphere of war, sectarianism, and class hierarchy.

Weight: 278g
Dimension: 129 x 201 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781911540113